From 2019 to 2024, the total global trade value of Copper grew faster and more strongly than that of Aluminum. Copper increased from about USD 212 million to nearly USD 348 million, supported by a high compound annual growth rate of 10.4%, while Aluminum rose from roughly USD 201 million to around USD 274 million with a lower growth rate of 6.4%. Copper reached its lowest value at the start of the period and its highest at the end, whereas Aluminum hit its minimum in 2020 and peaked earlier, in 2022. Over time, Copper showed moderate upward movements with normal volatility before stabilizing with lower fluctuations, while Aluminum experienced milder changes with limited volatility. By 2024, Copper again outperformed Aluminum in annual growth. Overall, both metals moved closely together, showing a very strong positive correlation throughout the period.

Between 2019 and 2024, the ratio of trade in the Upstream Copper Industry relative to Copper increased more noticeably than the corresponding ratio in the Upstream Aluminum Industry. Copper’s upstream trade ratio rose by about 2.7 percentage points, moving from 59.4% to roughly 62.1%, while Aluminum’s ratio increased only slightly, by around 0.5 percentage point, to nearly 24.3%. Copper recorded its lowest ratio at the beginning of the period and reached a peak early, in 2020, whereas Aluminum experienced its minimum value later, in 2022, and achieved its highest level only in the final year. Over time, Copper’s ratio showed small upward and downward movements across different sub-periods, but these changes were consistently accompanied by low volatility. Aluminum followed a similar low-volatility pattern, although its early movements were slightly downward before turning upward toward the end of the period. Overall, both ratios displayed limited volatility throughout the years under review. In the final year, Copper’s ratio declined modestly, a change that was fully in line with earlier observations, while Aluminum’s increase was considered almost unexpected compared with its historical behavior. Despite these differences, correlation analysis confirms that the two ratios generally moved in the same direction, although the strength of their relationship remained weak.

From 2019 to 2024, the Upstream Copper Industry clearly held a stronger position in the total global trade of the Copper value chain than the Upstream Aluminum Industry did in the Aluminum value chain. In more years during this period, upstream Copper accounted for a higher share of total trade compared with upstream Aluminum, highlighting its more prominent role overall. As shown in the chart, this pattern was not temporary and was maintained consistently over the past six years. On average, upstream Copper represented about 61.7% of the total global trade in the Copper value chain, while upstream Aluminum accounted for only around 23.7% of the Aluminum value chain. This large difference indicates that the upstream segment of Copper played a more effective role in global trade. Importantly, this relative positioning did not change at any point during the period, as upstream Copper consistently ranked higher than upstream Aluminum throughout the years under review.